The ideal-realism of Georges Gurvitch

Abstract

In this article we would like to concentrate on the figure of Georges Gurvitch. Gurvitch developed a considerable body of work in the field of political philosophy, legal science as well as sociology. But he did not limit himself to theoretical work: he also sought to intervene in and influence the social and political evolution of his time. Thus, while in exile in New York during World War II, in 1944 he wrote The Bill of Social Rights (La déclaration des droits sociaux 3), whose purpose was to inspire the constitution of the French Fourth Republic. It is this form of intervention that we would like to focus on here. If it deserves our attention, it is because, beyond its mere historical interest, it allows us to readdress the question of the intellectual intervention of the philosopher in the social realm in an original way. What is unique in Gurvitch's intervention in the social realm is that it is motivated by a genuine ambition to go beyond the aporia of a purely ideal approach based on the illusion of the omnipotence of ideas, all the while refusing to sacrifice the desire to strengthen the "hold of the ideal over the real". Neither purely ideal nor purely real, Gurvitch qualifies his method as an "ideal-realism". As we shall see, Gurvitch's aim in The Bill of Social Rights is to render possible a more effective hold of the ideal over the real.